Origins of Popular Sayings

Often we use popular phrases that everyone understands because they are well known. Like I might say "that guy stole my thunder" and most people would know what that means. But have you ever wondered where these sayings actually come from? I'm a very curious person so I decided to look a few up, here is what I found.

Stole My Thunder

The popular phrase "stole my thunder" was coined by John Dennis, an English critic and playwright. In 1709 John Dennis wrote a play called Appius and Virginia. For Appius and Virginia, Dennis created a way to simulate the sound of thunder. The thunder was well liked by the crowd however Appius and Virginia was not. Dennis was forced to cancel Appius and Virginia because the theater was not happy with its lack of audience. Later Dennis returned to the same theater to see Shakespeare's Macbeth. As Dennis sat in the crowd he realized they were using the same method that Dennis used to create thunder. Dennis stood up and screamed, "That's my thunder, by God! The villains will not play my play but they steal my thunder."

Dark Horse

England's Prime Minister in 1831, Disraeli, was also a novelist and poet. Disraeli was writing a three-volume novel called The Young Duke: A Moral Tale Though Gay. In the second book the main character, Duke of St. James, attends a horse race that has a surprise finish. In the book Disraeli writes, "A dark horse which had never been thought of, and which the careless St. James had never even observed in the list, rushed past the grandstand in sweeping triumph." At the time Disraeli was simply referring to the color of the horse but somewhere along the way "dark horse" became the name of an unexpected winner.

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